KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park has added a little more stretch of trail to its park. What’s new is that it’s not just for pedestrians. Mary Donaldson has more.
As soon as the ground thawed out this spring, the park began construction of its first official bike path. It lies just to the right on Abercrombie Drive as you enter the park from Rezanof. Kevin Murphy is the district ranger for Kodiak State Parks and says this project has been developing over the last few years.
(Murphy 1 :35s “…next two years.”)
He says the annual inflation in construction prices are what caused the project to go 100-thousand dollars over its original 240-thousand dollar budget. The Alaska Trails Initiative was able to cover the cost of the price increase for the work this summer that Twin Peaks Construction finished in about 7 weeks. Murphy says next summer the park plans to continue working on the newest portion of trail. The plan is to pave the trail so that it will be nicer for the public to use, whether it’s for walking or biking. The park also plans on installing a new interpretive kiosk sometime in the future.
(Murphy 2 :38s “…and what they can see.”)
Murphy says a rough estimate for paving the new trail is in the ballpark of 40 to 60-thousand dollars. Cost for the interpretive kiosk is estimated to be about 15-thousand dollars.
Another new feature in Fort Abercrombie this summer was the addition of bike racks that just went in on Tuesday.
(Murphy 3 :30s “…just installed yesterday.”)
Murphy notes that one of the main goals for the trail is to give pedestrians and bikers the opportunity to traverse along Abercrombie Drive, out of traffics way. Construction of the new bike-slash-pedestrian trail was a part of the most recent Trail Plan Mission Statement which says Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park is to provide a quality system of environmentally sustainable trails, ranging from minimally to fully developed, that affords a variety of natural outdoor opportunities for visitors of varying abilities, without compromising the overall purpose of the park.
I’m Mary Donaldson.
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